Eid Mabrook and Sonic Boom!

It is Eid today. Ramadan is over. I really enjoy Ramadan. It’s a month in which my swearing is reduced drastically. I try to be a better person and hope that the thought patterns I have cultivated in this time become permanent.

It was a real shame to read about the disgraceful sonic boom tactics being used indiscriminately on the Palestinian population by the Israeli Air Force. They fly low at supersonic speeds after midnight at regular intervals. Sonic booms are pretty loud. We’re talking Four-Horsemen-of-the-Apocalypse-loud. Imagine an earthquake and a nuke going off at the same time. If you’re thinking about a metal pan falling onto the floor in the kitchen at night, waking you up, that’s pretty disturbing. And way off the scale. Multiply that sound by about a trillion and you will begin to get the picture.

Miscarriages in the civilian Palestinian population have gone up 40% since the sonic boom campaign was started. And of course, it was started because the Jewish settlers were removed from the illegally occupied territories, leaving the Israelis free to pursue a programme of indiscrimnate terrorism. Children are suffering, women are suffering because of the acute distress caused by the clockwork night-time sound bombardment. Cardiac incidents have shot up too.

Having been twice burgled recently, I wake to the sound of my drunken neighbours kicking their door in at 2 in the morning with adrenalin threatening to rupture my aorta. I think I would just die in my bed if I heard four earthquakes a night. I certainly wouldn’t get a restful sleep and if my kids were staying with me, I don’t think I would suddenly show sympathy to the Israeli cause. Quite the opposite actually. I think I might be finding out how to help the terrorists so that my children could sleep more safely and if not my children, then their children. But I would be misguided. The circle of violence needs to be stopped. It starts with a cessation of hypocrisy and doublethink. That’s a long way away.

The damage is not limited to people of course. Thousands of windows have been smashed and buildings cracked. In the past week alone, an average of four sonic booms a night have been created.

A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would not permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups. “We are trying to send a message in a way that doesn’t harm people. We want to encourage the Palestinian public to do something about the terror situation,” he said. “What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who shoot civilians. We are cautious. We make sure nobody is really hurt.”

Ah, nice words. “We want to encourage the Palestinian public”. Reminds me of the fools who say they want to encourage the British public to leave Iraq by blowing London civilians up. You are all deluded. A message from Gandhi, satirising a core Israeli belief should be broadcast at sonic-boom levels to “encourage” the Israeli public to stop Israeli terrorism:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

Eid Mabrook (blessings of Eid) to all.